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In House-Senate budget talks, feds fear being familiar target

By
Jack Moore

When House and Senate lawmakers kicked off formal budget negotiations this week
for the first time since the government shutdown ended, both Republicans and
Democrats said replacing sequestration, the blunt across-the-board budget cuts,
with an alternative plan would be a top priority.

"There is clear consensus that this is a terrible way to cut spending," committee
co-chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in her opening statement. "So the question is
no longer whether sequestration should be replaced — but how. "

Without a deal to avert sequestration by January, a cap on agency funding will be
lowered to $967 billion, split about evenly between Defense and nondefense
spending. Going into the conference committee, the Senate Democratic spending plan
calls for replacing sequestration with alternative deficit-reduction measures
— raising the cap to $1.058 trillion. The House budget, authored by Rep.
Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the committee's co-chair, lives within the post-sequestration
caps, but boosts funding for Defense beyond what the law allows.

At the budget conference committee, lawmakers appeared no closer to bridging the
divide over how to pay for a sequester replacement.

Democrats continued their push for a "balanced approach" saying they won't
consider structural changes to entitlements, such as Medicare and Social Security,
without also looking at revenue increases. Republicans are dead set against
raising tax rates.

With such a small slice of federal spending remaining up for grabs, where else
can budget negotiators turn to for savings? The answer to that question has left
federal-employee unions and advocacy groups with a familiar sinking feeling.

Federal pay, benefits on the table?

"Regardless of what they're talking about — short-term or long-term, taxes
or no taxes, entitlements or no entitlements — we are always aware that
federal employees and the federal community are going to be a part of these
discussions," said Jessica Klement, the legislative representative for the
National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE).

So far, budget negotiators have been tight-lipped on specifics. In their first
meeting in the basement of the Capitol Wednesday, members gave only brief opening
statements. They won't meet again until Nov. 13.

Still, federal fears have settled on two areas of concern: forcing employees to
pay more for their retirement benefits and an extension of the pay freeze.

Ryan's House-approved budget has included increases to existing federal employees'
retirement contributions for several years running. The latest version of the Ryan
budget calls for federal employees to contribute 5.5 percent more
toward their retirement for a savings of $132 billion over the next decade.

Federal employees in the current retirement system hired before the start of 2013
contribute 0.8 percent of their pay toward their federal pensions. New federal
hires must contribute 3.1 percent because of a deal passed by Congress last
February as part of the payroll tax extension.

Complicating matters, however, is the fact that President Barack Obama has also
called for increases to federal workers' retirement contributions, albeit on a
smaller scale. The White House's 2014 budget proposal recommended a
1.2 percent increase phased in over three years.

"When the President puts it in this budget and it's been in Paul Ryan's budget for
years now — when you have that combined — I don't see how it can't not
be on the table," Klement said.

American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox wasted no time
in responding to the proposal, issuing a press release Wednesday calling any
changes to retirement contributions "robbery, plan and simple."

Retirement benefits are part of the deal that employees sign up for when they
enter federal employment, said Jacque Simon, AFGE's public policy director, in an
interview with Federal News Radio. "And suddenly changing these terms as part of
some big poker game between President and the Congress is entirely inappropriate,"
she added. "These benefits belong to the federal employees."

Pay raise in jeopardy?

With a second round of steep budget cuts poised to hit agencies, federal-employee
groups are also growing concerned Congress may halt a scheduled pay increase.

The short-term funding measure passed by Congress two weeks ago that ended the
government shutdown clears the way for the 1 percent pay raise proposed by
the President to go into effect. However, Congress didn't approve any additional
funding to cover the pay bump.

"Since Congress hasn't appropriated this money, they have to find this
money" in their existing budgets, Klement said, which may be hard to do if
sequestration continues apace next year.